Non-blocking automated agent detection

ABSTRACT

Online retailers may operate one or more services configured to detect requests generated by automated agents. A CAPTCHA may be transmitted in response to requests generated by automated agents. The CAPTCHAs may be included in a modal pop-up box configured to be displayed by a client application displaying a webpage to a customer of the online retailer. Automated agents receiving the CAPTCHAs may not be blocked or otherwise restricted from the resources requested and therefore may not be configured to interact with the CAPTCHAs contained in the modal pop-up box.

BACKGROUND

In modern computing, computer programs that automate human tasks havebecome more common. Certain computer programs, which are referred to asautomated robots or so-called “bots,” provide tools that automate tasks,such as crawling through webpages to scan and gather keywords, text andlinks. Computer programs can also masquerade as humans to gatherinformation from websites, such as customer information, orautomatically purchase large quantities of a desired commodity or acommodity being sold at a promotional price. Since a computer programcan act automatically and more rapidly than a human, a computer programcan compromise data for a large number of accounts or assist a singlebuyer in purchasing large quantities of a commodity in a short timespan.

In a typical completely automated public Turing test to tell computersand humans apart (CAPTCHA), a computer provides an entity attempting toaccess a network resource with a test, the computer receives a responseto the test from the user, and the computer evaluates whether or not theresponse to the test is correct. A CAPTCHA is designed to provide a testthat is relatively simple for a human to solve, but, at the same time,poses a challenge for a computer to decipher. For example, a CAPTCHAmight require a user to type letters or digits that appear in an image.Such an image is often distorted in some fashion to hinder a computerfrom using optical character recognition (OCR) technology to read theletters or digits that appear in the image. As the image is relativelyeasy to discern by a human, but is difficult for a computer to discernin an automated fashion, a correct solution to the test is presumed tohave been submitted by a human.

CAPTCHAs are premised upon the rationale that humans solve visualpuzzles more accurately than computers. However, as approaches forautomatically circumventing CAPTCHAs have become more sophisticated,computer programs have been able to determine the text or digits withinthe CAPTCHAs with increased accuracy. To combat this escalation inprogram sophistication, CAPTCHAs have also evolved in an attempt toimprove the security that they provide. Some modern CAPTCHAs providemore sophisticated tests, such as tests that require a user todistinguish real-world features appearing in images. Such a test mightrequire a user to select a particular type of image from a group ofimages. For example, distinguishing a photograph of a dog from aphotograph of a cat is simple for a human to accomplish, but such a taskremains relatively difficult for a computer program to solve withconsistency.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will bedescribed with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1A-1B illustrates a messaging diagram showing CAPTCHA inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 2A-2C illustrates an environment showing an online retailer inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an environment showing CAPTCHA in accordance withvarious aspects of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrates a messaging diagram showing CAPTCHA inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates a diagram of a webpage in accordance with variousaspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a diagram of a webpage in accordance with variousaspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates an environment showing CAPTCHA cookies in accordancewith various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates an environment showing an online retailer inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a process for telling humans and botsapart in accordance with at least one embodiment;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a process for telling humans and botsapart in accordance with at least one embodiment;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a process for telling humans and botsapart in accordance with at least one embodiment; and

FIG. 12 illustrates an environment in which various embodiments can beimplemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, various embodiments will be described. Forpurposes of explanation, specific configurations and details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments.However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that theembodiments may be practiced without the specific details. Furthermore,well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscurethe embodiment being described.

Techniques described and suggested herein relate to enhancements fordifferentiating between human requests and automated agent requestsreceived at one or more servers of a system in which, at least in somecontexts, interaction with the system by automated agents is undesired.In an embodiment, the system is one of an online retailer and, while anonline retailer is used extensively throughout for the purpose ofillustration, the techniques described herein are generally applicableto systems that receive or have the potential to receive requests fromautomated agents. In this particular example, the online retailer mayoperate an online marketplace from which customers may purchase goods orservices. One or more services, such as a bot detection service, of theonline retailer may monitor incoming requests and determine, based atleast in part on the request and information associated with therequest, whether there is a significant enough probability that therequest has been submitted by an automated agent (also referred to as abot) or otherwise check whether the request was submitted by anautomated agent should be performed. The information associated with therequest may include information corresponding to a customer session,customer purchase history, browser history, number and frequency of therequests, Internet Protocol (IP) address corresponding to the requests,cookie associated with the request, parameter associated with therequest, client application responsible for generating the request,behavioral attributes of the requestor, or any other informationsuitable for determining whether there is a significant enoughprobability of the request having been submitted by an automated agent.Various machine-learning algorithms may also be used to determinewhether there is a significant enough probability of the request havingbeen generated and/or submitted by an automated agent.

Automated agent detection models based at least in part on the requestand/or machine-learning algorithms may be subject to false positives(human customers incorrectly classified as automated agents). Numeroussignals may be used to determine whether a particular request wasgenerated by human or an automated agent such as JavaScript® activity,purchase history, customer account, browsing history, CAPTCHA or otherinformation suitable for detecting automated agent activity. However,returning a blocking CAPTCHA in response to a request may provide theauthors of the automated agents with a clear signal that the automatedagents' activities have been detected. A blocking CAPTCHA may be aCAPTCHA whose successful fulfillment is required for access to at leastsome information, such as at least some webpages of a website.

In some embodiments, returning a non-blocking CAPTCHA in response toautomated agent requests, in order to measure the false positive rate,enables the online retailer to collect information associated with theactivities of automated agents without compromising the ability tomitigate automated agent requests in the future. The non-blockingCAPTCHA may allow automated agents to continue operations without denialof the requests associated with the operations, while humans (falsepositives) may be presented with a CAPTCHA challenge, for example,displayed in a modal pop-up box. A modal pop-up box (also referred to asa modal dialog or modal window) may be a child window that requiresusers to interact with the child window before they can return tooperating the parent application, thus preventing the workflow on theapplication main window. The non-blocking CAPTCHA may be presented tohumans, through a client application, as a graphical user interface(GUI) or an element of a GUI requesting certain information despite thewebpage including the mechanisms, such as uniform resource locators(URLs), for requesting the information. For example, a webpage maycontain certain information that is accessible without fulfillment ofthe CAPTCHA such that the code of the webpage includes a referenceusable to access the information, but the webpage may be presented withthe reference being selectable. The non-blocking CAPTCHA, inactivenon-blocking CAPTCHA or other security checks described herein may beincluded in one or more user interface types. The bot detection serviceor other service may define a particular user interface type, theparticular user interface type may include a particular type of securitycheck to be displayed as a result of rendering a user interface of theparticular user interface type. An automated agent may request a webpageand receive the requested webpage which includes a non-blocking CAPTCHA,but the webpage containing the requested information may still allow theautomated agent to follow the URLs included in the code of the webpageand use the URLs to submit additional requests. A human presented withthe same page however would not be able to use the URLs to submitadditional requests until the CAPTCHA included in the webpage wascompleted because the application displaying the webpage to the userwould not allow selection of the URLs. URLs are an example of referencesto information and other techniques for referencing information may beused in accordance with the present disclosure.

The requested webpage may contain additional markup to overlay the modalwindow with the CAPTCHA challenge using JavaScript®, Cascading StyleSheets (CSS) or other known techniques capable of displaying a pop-upbox or dialogue box such that the user is required to interact with thepop-up box or dialogue box. The CAPTCHA may be included in the code ofthe webpage in such a way that automated agents may ignore the CAPTCHAbut the CAPTCHA would still be visible to humans using a clientapplication configured to display information to humans, such as a webbrowser. The signal returned in response to the modal pop-up mayindicate whether the request is associated with a human or automatedagent. The signal may include a variety of mechanisms configured toenable the online retailer to track information corresponding tointeractions with a webpage including JavaScript®, cookies, causing apage refresh, causing the client application to modify the static returnpage, causing a header or parameter to be passed back to the onlineretailer, altering or otherwise modifying flags in the CSS associatedwith the webpage, monitoring state outside of the webpage or includingadditional information in a webpage request or URL. For example, if thesignal, such as a webpage request, returned includes a response to theCAPTCHA, this may indicate a false positive (i.e., that the response wasgenerated based at least in part on human interaction). This informationmay be used by the online retailer to update the bot detection serviceand improve automated agent detection.

In some embodiments, an inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA is returned inresponse to the request. The inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA may allowhumans to continue operations without requiring interaction with theCAPTCHA contained in the response to the request. Automated agents orauthors of the automated agent may discover that more favorabletreatment of a request may be achieved if there is at least someinteraction with the modal pop-up box contained in the non-blockingCAPTHCA. For example, the bot detection service may be configured suchthat an interaction with the modal pop-up box may reduce the confidencelevel associated with the particular requestor. The confidence level mayindicate the likelihood that the particular requestor is an automatedagent. For example, a high confidence level associated with theparticular requestor may indicate that one or more signals associatedwith the particular requestor have been received and that the receivedsignals are likely generated by an automated agent. Authors of theautomated agents may discover this and configure the automated agent torender the modal pop-up box so that the automated agent may transmit aninteraction with the modal pop-up box to the online retailer. Therefore,it may be advantageous to be able to discriminate between automatedagents interacting with the modal pop-up box and humans interacting withthe modal pop-up box.

The inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA may allow the online retailer todiscriminate between human and automated agent interaction with thenon-blocking CAPTCHA. For example, the modal pop-up box described abovein connection with the non-blocking CAPTCHA may be rendered inactive orotherwise caused not to be displayed on the client applications used byhumans to display the response. However, the automated agent may not beable to detect that the CAPTCHA has been rendered inactive (i.e., notvisible to humans) and may submit a solution to the CAPTCHA. Automatedagents may attempt to solve the CAPTCHA, such as using optical characterrecognition (OCR) techniques to extract the text from the CAPTHCA. Inanother example, automated agent may obtain a solution from a humanoperator, such as by transmitting to a human the CAPTCHA, obtaining asolution to the CAPTCHA and transmitting the solution to the onlineretailer. The online retailer may receive the solution and determinethat the associated request was likely transmitted by an automated agentsince, if the web page was properly rendered, the ability to provide asolution would not have been visible to a user. For example, the onlineretailer may receive a request for a webpage and determine to include aninactive non-blocking CAPTCHA in the response in order to collectinformation about the particular requestor responsible for submittingthe request. The requested webpage may include additional markup thatcauses the modal pop-up containing the CAPTCHA to not be displayed. Thesignal received in response, such as a second HTTP request, may indicatethe request is associated with a human or automated agent based at leastin part on whether a solution to the CAPTCHA was included in the signal.

In some embodiments, a CAPTCHA cookie (also referred to as a token orsecurity cookie) may be transmitted in response to an interaction with aCAPTCHA regardless of whether the interaction indicates that the requestis associated with a human or an automated agent. In variousembodiments, CAPTCHA cookies are issued in response to correct solutionsto a CAPTCHA and are valid for a period of time or number of uses.CAPTCHA cookies may be issued in response to interactions with blockingCAPTCHA, non-blocking CAPTCHA, inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA or anyother mechanism configured to receive human interaction. The CAPTCHAcookie may allow the requestor to transmit the CAPTCHA cookie along withthe request and the CAPTCHA cookie may indicate to the online retailerthat the request may be processed without blocking access to therequested resources. The online retailer may monitor the use of CAPTCHAcookies and manage the number of CAPTCHA cookies issued. A particularCAPTCHA cookie may be issued in response to an incorrect CAPTCHAsolution included in a response to a particular request in order tomonitor the use of the CAPTCHA cookie and determine, based at least inpart on the use of the CAPTCHA cookie, whether the particular request isassociated with a human or an automated agent. For example, an automatedagent may share the CAPTCHA cookie with one or more other automatedagents and the online retailer may receive multiple requests fromdifferent requestors with the same CAPTCHA cookie. This activity mayindicate that the CAPTCHA cookie was originally transmitted to anautomated agent and the online retailer may update the bot detectionservice based at least in part on the use of the CAPTCHA cookie.

Non-blocking CAPTCHA, inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA and monitoring theuse of CAPTCHA cookies may be used to measure the false positive rate ofsuspected automated agent traffic. For example, if the false positiverate is within an acceptable threshold, then a blocking action could betriggered to mitigate the unwanted traffic at a future point in timewithout unveiling to the author of the automated agent that the activityof the automated agent has been detected in the process. This may enableone or more subsets of non-actionable (i.e., low confidence) automatedagent traffic identified by the bot detection system to be automaticallytransitioned into actionable (i.e., high confidence) automated agenttraffic. The bot detection system may maintain a list of signaturescapable of identifying a request as originating from a particularsource, the source may be a human or automated agent. The signature listmay be an ordered list where the location of the signature in the listindicates the level of confidence that the signature represents anautomated agent. The signature may include information capable ofdifferentiating requestors such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address,cookie, physical address, customer account information, sessioninformation, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) parameter or token. Thesignature list may be used to tag requests enabling other services ofthe online retailer to process the request. For example, signatures inthe top half of the list may indicate with a high confidence that therequests associated with the signature are generated by an automatedagent and the signatures in the bottom half of the list may indicatewith a low confidence that the requests associated with the signatureare generated by an automated agent.

Requests may be received at a request routing service, the requestrouting service may be responsible for routing requests to the system ofservice responsible for processing the requests. For example, aHypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request for a particular webpage maybe directed by the request routing server to the particular web serverresponsible for rendering the particular webpage indicated by the HTTPrequest. The request routing service may receive a copy of the signaturelist from the detection service in order to tag traffic. The requestrouting service may determine, based at least in part on the signaturelist, whether a particular request matches a signature in the signaturelist and tag the request according to the location of the signature inthe signature list. For example, the request routing service maydetermine a particular signature is associated with a received requestand search the signature list for a match. If the request routingservice finds a corresponding signature in the signature list, forexample, a signature in the signature list indicating a high confidencelevel, the request routing service may then tag the request as highconfidence automated agent traffic. Once the traffic is tagged, therequest routing service may then direct for processing.

The tagged request may be received by a rendering service, the renderingservice may be responsible for processing the request and returning aresponse to the request. The rendering service may also make a servicecall to a policy service, the service call may include tag informationassociated with the request. The policy service may determine, based atleast in part on the tag information, one or more CAPTCHA actions totake in response to the request. For example, the rendering service mayreceive a request tagged as high confidence automated agent traffic andtransmit a service call to the policy service indicating the receivedrequest is high confidence automated agent traffic. The policy servicemay then determine to include a non-blocking CAPTCHA in the response tothe request and transmit this information to the rendering service. Therendering service may then obtain a non-blocking CAPTCHA or other typeof CAPTCHA to include in the response to the request. The response mayinclude HyperText Markup Language (HTML), JavaScript®, CSS, executableinstructions, commands or other information suitable for causing thedisplay of a CAPTCHA.

The online retailer may receive a signal corresponding to the responseand determine whether there is a significant enough probability of therequest being submitted by an automated agent. For example, the onlineretailer may receive a solution to a CAPTCHA included in the modalpop-up box of a non-blocking CAPTCHA. This signal may indicate that therequestor is a human operator and the online retailer may then updatethe signature list by moving the signature corresponding to therequestor lower in the signature list. The online retailer may alsoselect a set of signatures to test over a period of time in order todetermine the false positive rate. For example, the online retailer mayselect a set of low confidence automated agent signatures to present anon-blocking CAPTCHA to and collect signals in response to thenon-blocking CAPTCHA over a period of time. At the expiration of thetime period, that online retailer may update the signature list based atleast in part on the signals received. The online retailer may thenalter the test to present inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA to the selectedset of low confidence automated agent signatures. This may allow theonline retailer to collect additional signals that may be correlated tobetter indicate whether a particular signature is associated with ahuman or automated agent. The online retailer may also, once anautomated agent has been detected, obtain information corresponding tothe behavior of the automated agent in the past and update the automatedagent detection model based at least in part on the past behavior. Forexample, the online retailer may receive one or more signals associatedwith a particular signature, the one or more signals indicating aparticular level of confidence that the signature is associated with anautomated agent. The online retailer may then determine, based on ahistory corresponding to the signature, particular automated agentbehaviors and update the automated agent detection model based at leastin part on the determined behaviors.

FIGS. 1A-1B illustrate a messaging diagram 100A and 100B where one ormore computer systems running within a computing resource serviceprovider environment, as well as the associated code running thereon,may execute a robot detection service. Service providers may includewebsite operators, online retailers, social network providers, cableproviders, online game providers or any entity capable of receivingautomated agent traffic. A customer 102 (also referred to as a user) mayconnect to an online retailer 110 through a computer system clientdevice and may initiate connection with and/or interaction with one ormore applications running on a request routing service of the onlineretailer 110. Furthermore, an automated agent 106 may also connect tothe online retailer 110 through the computer system client device andmay initiate connection with and/or interaction with one or moreapplications running on the request routing service or other service ofthe online retailer 110. The online retailer 110 may provide anelectronic marketplace offering goods and services for purchase and/orconsumption by customers of the online retailer 110. The command orcommands to connect to the online retailer may originate from an outsidecomputer system and/or server, or may originate from an entity, user orprocess on a remote network location, or may originate from an entity,user or process within the computing resource service provider, or mayoriginate from a user of the computer system client device, or mayoriginate as a result of an automatic process or may originate as aresult of a combination of these and/or other such origin entities. Insome embodiments, the command or commands to initiate the connection tothe online retailer 110 may be sent, without the intervention of thecustomer 102. For example, an automated agent 106 may attempt to connectto the online retailer 110 through computer system client device.

The customers 102 or automated agents 106 may request connection to theservice provider 110 via one or more connections and, in someembodiments, via one or more networks and/or entities associatedtherewith, such as servers connected to the network, either directly orindirectly. The computer system client device that may request access tothe online retailer 110 may include any device that is capable ofconnecting with a computer system via a network, including at leastservers, laptops, mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, othersmart devices such as smart watches, smart televisions, set-top boxes,video game consoles and other such network-enabled smart devices,distributed computing systems and components thereof, abstractedcomponents such as guest computer systems or virtual machines and/orother types of computing devices and/or components. The network mayinclude, for example, a local network, an internal network, a publicnetwork such as the Internet, a wide-area network, a wireless network, amobile network, a satellite network, a distributed computing system witha plurality of network nodes and/or the like. The network may alsooperate in accordance with various protocols, such as those listedbelow, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular network protocols, satellite networkprotocols and/or others.

The customers 102 may interact with the online retailer using a webbrowser or other application executed by the computer system clientdevice. To enable the customers 102 to interact with the online retailer110, the computer system client device may transmit one or moreHypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests 112 over the network to oneor more web servers operated by the online retailer 110. The request maybe received by the request routing service and directed to theappropriate web server for responding to the request. The web serversmay be responsible for delivering the website and associated content tothe customer 102 through the computer system client device in responseto the one or more HTTP requests 112 received over the network. Theautomated agent 106 may also connect to the online retailer usingapplications executed by the computer system client device, which may ormay not be the same computer system client device used by the customer102 to connect to the online retailer. Furthermore the automated agent106 itself may be an application programmed to connect to the onlineretailer 110 and executed by the computer system client device.

The online retailer 110 may operate one or more services configured todetect automated agents 106 such as a bot detection service, describedin greater detail below in connection with FIGS. 2A-2C. The onlineretailer 110 may receive one or more requests over connection andstream, or otherwise cause transmission of, the requests or informationcontained in the request to the bot detection service. The bot detectionservice may be responsible for maintaining a signature list of possibleautomated agent signatures and/or redirecting requests suspected ofbeing generated by an automated agent 106. As requests are received atthe request routing service, the requests may be tagged based at leastin part on the signature list. For example, the signature list maycontain IP addresses associated with a suspected automated agent. Therequest routing service may tag requests originating for an IP addressassociated with a suspected automated agent. When a web server orservice receives the tagged request 112, it may call a policy service inorder to determine if a CAPTCHA 104 should be included in a response114. If a CAPTCHA is to be included in the response 114, a CAPTCHAservice may generate a CAPTCHA (also referred to as a security check)and cause the security check 104 to be transmitted in the response 114to the request 112. The response 114 may include an HTML file 120configured to such that a security check 104 included in the HTML file120 may be displayed by a client device operated by a customer 102 whenrendering the HTML file 120. The HTML file 120 may include a script orsimilar executable code, that when executed by a device, such as theclient device, causes the security check 104 to be displayed.

The security check 104 may be a representation of a rendered CAPTCHA andincludes a field into which the solution to the CAPTCHA may be entered.The CAPTCHA in the security check 104 may be any mechanism configured todifferentiate humans from automated agents. For example, the CAPTCHA maybe a game or promotional material that a human may be more likely tointeract with. Different client devices operated by customer 102 mayrender the representation of the security check 104 differently based atleast in part on different hardware and software included in thedifferent client devices. The security check 104 is simply arepresentative of the CAPTCHA rendered by a client device and may not berepresentative of the CAPTCHA as rendered on all devices. The customers102 may complete the security check 104 and return a solution to 122 thesecurity check 104 to the online retailer 110 in a response 116.

Referring now to FIG. 1B, the online retailer 110 may receive anotherrequest 132, the other request 132 may be received from an automatedagent 106. When the automated agent 106 receives the response 114including the HTML file 120 containing the script associated with thesecurity check 104, the automated agent 106 may not complete thesecurity check 104. The automated agent 106 may receive a webpage 108,the webpage 108 corresponding to the HTML file 120. The automated agentmay not execute the script included in the HTML file 120 and thereforethe automated agent 106 may not determine that the HTML file 120includes a modal pop-up box containing security check 104. Furthermore,the automated agent 106 may be configured to simply ignore the scriptcontained in the HTML file 120. The automated agent 106 may execute aheadless browser or similar application that is not configured toexecute scripts or other executable code included in the HTML file 120.For example, the automated agent 106 may receive the requested HTML file120 and extract information from the webpage 108 without executing theassociated script (e.g., JavaScript®) that causes a security check to bepresented in a modal pop-up box. The webpage 108 is a representation ofwhat the automated agent 106 may interpret the html file 120 torepresent. The automated agent 106 may not display or cause to bedisplayed the webpage 108 corresponding to the html file 120. Forexample, the automated agent 106 may be configured to receive the HTMLfile 120 and parse the HTML file 120 for the contents of the webpage 108such as the price for an item included in the webpage 108.

A variety of different security checks 104 may be generated and used totell the difference between humans and automated agents in accordancewith the present disclosure. The security check 104 may includedetecting mouse clicks or mouse movements, games, coupons, discountcodes, offers for goods or services, purchase of goods or services,obfuscated text, images or any other mechanism for receiving humaninteraction.

In various embodiments, the security check 104 in FIG. 1A is anon-blocking CAPTCHA, to be described in greater detail below inconnection with FIG. 3, the non-blocking CAPTCHA may be treated byautomated agents 106 as a standard webpage 108 however human usersviewing webpage 108 on a client application executed by the computersystem client device may see the security check 104 displayed on top ofthe webpage 108 in a modal manner. In various other embodiments, thesecurity check 104 may be inactive in web page 108 but may still beincluded in the code associated with webpage 108. This may cause thesecurity check to not be visible to humans when the webpage is viewedusing the client application. However, because the security check 104 isstill included in the code associated with webpage 108, automated agents106 may detect the security check 104 and submit a solution to thesecurity check 104. Inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA is described ingreater detail below in connection with FIGS. 4A-4B.

FIGS. 2A-2C show an environment 200A-200C in which requestor(s) 202 mayinteract with an online retailer 210. The requestor(s) 202 may beautomated agents or humans. The online retailer 210 may operate awebsite that provides an online marketplace where customers 202 maypurchase and offer for sale various goods and services. The requestor(s)202 may transmit requests to access various resources of the onlineretailer 210. For example, requestor(s) 202 may, using a computingdevice executing a web browser, navigate the online retailer's 210website searching for a particular item. The computing device(s)associated with the requestor(s) 202 may transmit one or more HTTPrequests to a request routing service 206 of the online retailer 210.The request routing service 206 may be a collection of computingresources collectively configured to receive HTTP requests and directthe HTTP requests to one or more other services of the online retailer.For example, the request routing service 206 may be a collection ofcomputer systems (e.g., servers) located on the edge of the onlineretailers network 210 configured to direct incoming traffic based atleast in part on requests included in the incoming traffic.

The request routing service 206 may direct requests using HTTP redirector other routing techniques. The request routing service 206 may beresponsible for directing requests to the appropriate service of theonline retailer 210 for processing. The request routing service 206 maytag requests as low confidence automated agent traffic, high confidenceautomated agent traffic or the request routing service may not tag therequest. The request may be tagged based at least in part on a signaturelist maintained by a bot detection service 212. The signature list andthe bot detection service are described in greater detail below inconnection with FIG. 9. The request routing service 206 may transmitinformation corresponding to the request and the incoming traffic to thebot detection service 212 over a connection 222. The connection 222 maybe any suitable connection for transmitting communications betweencomputer systems or within the same computer system such as a network,private network, virtual private network, inter-process communications,service call, function call or other connection. For example, therequest routing service 206 may transmit CAPTCHA responses to the botdetection service 212 in order for the bot detection service 212 todetermine if the requestors 202 associated with the CAPTCHA responsesare humans or automated agents.

In various embodiments, the request routing service 206 may streamand/or transmit requestors' 202 requests to a rendering service 214. Invarious embodiments, an indication of a request may be transmitted inplace of or along with the request. The indications can be the requeststhemselves or information based at least in part on the requests. Therendering service 214 may be a collection of computing resourcescollectively configured to generate responses to requests received bythe online retailer. For example, the rendering service may beimplemented by a web server (or collection of web servers) responsiblefor transmitting a webpage in response to an HTTP request or similarrequest. The rendering service may receive tagged or untagged requestsfrom the request routing service 206 over the connection 220. Theconnection 220 may be any suitable connection for transmittingcommunications between computer systems or within the same computersystem such as a network, private network, virtual private network,inter-process communications, service call, function call or otherconnection. If the rendering service 214 receives a tagged request, therendering service 214 may transmit information corresponding to therequest or may transmit the request itself to a policy service 216 overa connection 224. The connection 224 may be any suitable connection fortransmitting communications between computer systems or within the samecomputer system such as a network, private network, virtual privatenetwork, inter-process communications, service call, function call orother connection. For example, the rendering service 214 may generate aservice call to the policy service 216, the service call may includeinformation corresponding to the tagged request such as the signature ofthe request and associated confidence level.

The policy service 216 may be a collection of computing resourcescollectively configured to determine one or more CAPTCHA actions to beincluded in a particular response to a request received from a requestor202. For example, the policy service may contain a set of rules andcorresponding actions to be performed based on the confidence levelassociated with the tagged request. Furthermore, the policy service maybe configured to automatically update the policy information and conducttests of the detection models used by the bot detection service 212. Thepolicy service 216 may also receive commands from an outside source. Forexample, a system administrator may manually update the policyinformation and/or conduct a test of the detection models used by thebot detection service 212. The policy service 216 may determine the oneor more CAPTCHA actions based on the tag received from the renderingservice 214. The one or more CAPTCHA actions may include actions that donot involve a CAPTCHA such as blocking access to the request resource orproviding access to the requested resource. The policy service may alsodetermine that a non-blocking CAPTCHA or an inactive non-blockingCAPTCHA is to be included in the response to the request.

The bot detection service 212 may be a collection of computing resourcescollectively configured to receive requests and generate, based at leastin part on information corresponding to the requests, a scorecorresponding to the probability or likelihood that the requests weregenerated by an automated agent. The generated score may be used tomaintain an ordered list of signatures corresponding to suspectedautomated agents. The bot detection service 212 may be a computer systemconfigured to correlate information received corresponding to theactivities of the requestors 202 and determine, based at least in parton the received information, a confidence level that the requestor is anautomated agent. The bot detection service 212 may receive signals, fromthe request routing service 206, corresponding to responses to requestsfrom the requestors 202. For example, the policy service 216 maydetermine to include a non-blocking CAPTCHA in response to a particularrequest from a requestor 202 and the rendering service 214 may transmita response to the requestor 202 including the non-blocking CAPTCHA. Thewebpage including the non-blocking CAPTCHA may be configured such that,to a human, it appears as solving the CAPTCHA allowed access to thereference information contained in the webpage, however the referenceinformation was accessible through the code of the webpage, which wasnot displayed to the user.

In various embodiments, the response to the requestor 202 is a webpageincluding a non-blocking CAPTCHA where the webpage may not contain anyURLs or other information linking to information for which successfulsolution to the CAPTCHA is required. The request routing service 206 maythen receive from the particular requestor a signal corresponding to theresponse transmitted by the rendering service 214. The signal mayindicate that the requestor did not provide a solution to thenon-blocking CAPTCHA. The request routing service 206 may then transmitthe signal to the bot detection service 212 and the bot detectionservice may increase the confidence level to reflect the likelihood thatan automated agent is associated with the particular requestor 202. Thesignal may be generated by the requestor in various ways includingJavaScript®, a cookie, causing a page refresh, causing the clientapplication to modify the static return page, causing a header orparameter to be passed back to the online retailer 210, includingdifferent flags in the CSS associated with the response or othermechanism capable of monitoring the state outside of the response.

The bot detection service 212 may also receive the requests or copies ofthe requests and determine a probability of a particular request beinggenerated by an automated agent. The bot detection service 212 maydetermine the probability of a particular request being generated by anautomated agent contemporaneously with receiving the request from therequest routing service 206. While probabilities are used forillustration purposes, different calculations may be performed inaccordance with the present disclosure, such as calculations calculatedso as to generate a score for each request, where the scores arecorrelated to the probability of the request having been generated by anautomated agent. The bot detection service 212 may also monitor requestsover a period of time in order to determine the probability of therequest being generated by an automated agent. For example, the botdetection service 212 may monitor all of the requests from a particularcustomer's current session and determine the probability of the requestsbeing generated by an automated agent.

The bot detection service 212 may determine the probability of aparticular request(s) being generated by an automated agent andassociate the probability with the request. In various embodiments, thebot detection service 212 receives a copy of the request and returns, tothe request routing service 206, the probability of the request beinggenerated by an automated agent and information identifying the request.The bot detection service 212 may transmit the request and theassociated probability to the request routing service 212 and therequest routing service 212 may determine how to process the requestbased at least in part on the associated probability. The bot detectionservice 212 may also redirect the request to the rendering service 214based at least in part on the probability of the request being generatedby an automated agent. The bot detection service 212 may also generate alist of possible automated agents based at least in part on theinformation received from the request routing service 206. The list maybe configured to include information identifying the request and/or therequestor as well as a score indicating the likelihood of the requestbeing generated by an automated agent. The identifying information mayinclude a signature based at least in part on the IP address of therequestor, a cookie associated with the request, a token associated withthe request, a parameter associated with the request, a customer accountassociated with the request, a session associated with the request, anidentification number associated with the request, purchase historyassociated with the request or other information capable of identifyinga requestor associated with a request.

The request routing service 206 may receive information from the botdetection service 212 corresponding to the requests transmitted fromrequestors 202. The information may include an update to the signaturelist or a new signature list. The request routing service 206 may thenredirect the requests based at least in part on the information receivedfrom the bot detection service 212 or perform some other mitigatingaction. For example, the request routing service 206 may receiveinformation from the bot detection service 212 indicating that one ormore requests may have been transmitted by an automated agent. Therequest routing service 206 may then tag at least one of the one or morerequests before routing the request to the rendering service 214. Therendering service 214 may obtain a security check configured todetermine if the request was generated by a human or an automated agentbased at least in part on the policy service 216.

The bot detection service 212 and other services illustrated in FIGS.2A-2C may also be offered as a service to one or more users ororganizations of users such that the one or more users or organizationsof users may mitigate automated agent activity. For example, anorganization may operate a website using one or more computing resourcesof the online retailer, the online retailer may further offer the botdetection service 212 and/or the policy service 208 as a service to theorganization. The organization may then provide security checks to usersof the website in order to differentiate human users of the website andautomated agents as described in the present disclosure. Users of thewebsite may consent to allowing the online retailer and one or moreusers or organizations of users to share information corresponding tothe users of the website. This information may be used by the botdetection service 212 to detect the activity on automated agents on theorganization website.

FIGS. 2A-2C represent alternative configurations of the services andcomputer systems described herein. The various configurationsillustrated by FIGS. 2A-2C may be combined or portions of theconfigurations may be combined in specific embodiments. For example, thebot detection 212 service may communicate with the other services of theonline retailer 210 through the request routing service 206. In anotherexample, the rendering service 214 may transmit signals received fromrequestors 204 to the bot detection service 212, the bot detectionsservice 212 may determine based at least in part on the received signalsone or more updates to the policy service 216. Furthermore, the requestrouting service 206 may be replaced or incorporated into the renderingservice 214.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example environment 300 where one or more computersystems running within a computing resource service providerenvironment, as well as the associated code running thereon, may providein response to a request a non-blocking CAPTCHA in order to detectautomated agent activity. A requestor 302 (which may be a human orautomated agent) may connect to an online retailer 310 through acomputer system client device and may initiate connection with and/orinteraction with one or more applications running on a request routingservice 306 of the online retailer 310. FIG. 3 further illustrates awebpage 308 including a non-blocking CAPTCHA that may be displayed by anapplication executed by a computing device enabling a customer tointeract with an electronic commerce website operated by an onlineretailer. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the webpage 308 includes variousgraphical user interface elements that enable navigation throughout theelectronic commerce website of which the webpage 308 is a part. Thewebpage 308 may be displayed by various applications, such as a mobileapplication, web browser, stand-alone client, mobile browser or otherapplication configured to communicate with the online retailer 310. Inthis example, the webpage 308 includes various navigational featureswhich are rendered inactive or otherwise blocked by a modal pop-up box312. For instance, on the left-hand side of the webpage 308, variouslinks may link to one or more other webpages that contain additionalcontent corresponding to department pages and/or category pages. In thisexample, the links appear as textual words which enable the links to beselected using an appropriate input device such as a keyboard, mouse,touchscreen or other input device. Selection of one of the links maycause an application displaying the webpage 308 to submit, pursuant to aURL associated with the selected link by the programming of the webpage308, an HTTP request for the content associated with the link to aserver that provided the webpage 308 or another server.

However, the modal pop-up box 312 may be configured such that theselection of the links is blocked or the links may be rendered inactivewhile the modal pop-up box is displayed. In this example, the webpage308 also includes a security check 304 contained inside the modal pop-upbox 312. In various embodiments, alternatives to the modal pop-up box312 are used, for example, URLs are simply hidden from display withoutusing the modal pop-up box 312. For example, the URLs may be coveredwith an image or placed in a location of webpage 308 that human usersare unlikely to discover, the URLs may be attached to pixel-sized imagesor images that are unlikely for a human user to interact with. The modalpop-up box 312 and the security check 304 may be included as markup orexecutable code included in the response to the request from therequestor 302. In this example, the webpage 308 also includes agraphical user element configured as a “submit” button inside the modalpop-up box. The submit button 304 may be a graphical user interfaceelement of the webpage 308 where the underlying code of the webpage 308is configured such that selection by an input device of the submitbutton causes information corresponding to the security check 304displayed on the webpage 308 to be transmitted to one or more servers ofthe online retailer. This information may be a signal indicating thatthe requestor 302 is likely a human and cause the bot detection serviceor other service of the online retailer to lower the confidence levelassociated with the particular requestor 302. In some embodiments, thesecurity check 304 contained inside the modal pop-up box 312 must besolved correctly before interaction with the rest of webpage 308 isallowed. In other embodiments, the modal pop-up box 312 may be closed orotherwise cleared with fulfillment of the security check 304 containedin the modal pop-up box.

The webpage 308 may also include a graphical user element configured asa “cancel” button and a graphical user element configured as a closebutton. The cancel button and close button may be a graphical userinterface element of the webpage 308 where the underlying code of thewebpage 308 is configured such that selection by an input device of thecancel causes the application displaying the webpage 308 to remove themodal pop-up box 312 and enable operation of the underlay webpage 308.As illustrated in FIG. 3, any interaction with the modal pop-up box 312may be received as a signal by the request routing services 306 of theonline retailer that the requestor is likely a human. Conversely, if therequest routing service 306 receives a signal indicating that nointeraction occurred with modal pop-up box 312, the signal may indicatethat the requestor is likely an automated agent.

In this example, the modal pop-up box 312 contains a security check 304with obfuscated text requiring the requestor to enter the text displayedin security check 304. Other variations of the security check may beused in accordance with the present disclosure. For example, thesecurity check 304 may be a game, a discount code, a coupon, a mediaclip, a purchase request, a survey or other mechanism configured toreceive human interaction.

The webpage 308 may be caused to be displayed for a variety of reasonsas described above in connection with FIG. 2. For example, the webpage308 including modal pop-up box 312 may be displayed because the botdetection service indicated to the request routing service that arequest from the requestor 302 may have been generated by an automatedagent. In another example, webpage 308 including modal pop-up box 312may be displayed because the signature list included in the requestrouting service 306 indicated that the request or requestor may be anautomated agent. The signature list may indicate that the request orrequestor may be an automated agent with a high confidence, lowconfidence, within a particular confidence range or indicationcorresponding to the request or requestor included in the signaturelist.

The webpage 308 may also be displayed for a variety of other reasons.For example, the request routing service may require a CAPTCHA or othersecurity check to be inserted into the webpage 308 at random, afterprocessing a number of requests, at a particular time of day or year, ata particular sampling rate or any other reason suitable for mitigatingautomated agent activity. Completion of the security check displayed onthe modal pop-up box 312 may cause the request to be processed by one ormore services or servers of the online retailer and a cookie to bereturned along with the processed request. In various embodiments, thecookie may be transmitted to the requestor 302 even if the securitycheck 304 is not completed, is completed unsuccessfully or if nointeraction with the modal pop-up box 312 occurs. The use of the cookiemay then be tracked and used to further refine the bot detection modelsused by the bot detection service. Monitoring and tracking the use ofcookies is described in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 8.

The security check 304 displayed in the modal pop-up box 312 of webpage308 may be pre-generated and stored in one or more storage systems ofthe online retailer 310 or may be generated upon receipt of theredirected request by the rendering service or another service of theonline retailer 301. The security check 304 may also be partiallypre-generated and completed upon receipt of the redirected request. Forexample, the rendering service may generate a framework for the securitycheck 304 including placeholders for items and text-entry fields wherethe response to the security check may be entered. Upon receipt of therequest the rendering service may determine, based at least in part oninformation associated with the request, the items to include in thesecurity check.

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrate a messaging diagram 400A-40B where one or morecomputer systems running within a computing resource service providerenvironment, as well as the associated code running thereon, may providein response to a request an inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA in order todetect automated agent activity. A customer 402 may connect to an onlineretailer 410 through a computer system client device and may initiateconnection with and/or interaction with one or more applications runningon a request routing service of the online retailer 410. The inactivenon-blocking CAPTCHA displayed in webpage 408 of FIG. 4A may bedisplayed in connection with one or more tests executed by the onlineretailer 410 in order to collect information regarding the activity ofautomated agents on the electronic marketplace operated by the onlineretailer 410. For example, the online retailer 410 or a service of theonline retailer 410 may select a set of traffic to present with anon-blocking CAPTCHA, as described above in connection with FIG. 3. Thenon-blocking CAPTCHA may be presented to the set of traffic for a periodof time. The set of traffic may be a subset of the low confidence robottraffic. After the expiration of the period of time for presenting thenon-blocking CAPTCHA, the online retailer 410 may present the same setof traffic as the inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA in order to receiveadditional information about the traffic set which may be used tofurther refine the signature list and detect requests generated byautomated agents. If the online retailer 410 then receives solutions tothe inactive CAPTCHA, the online retailer 410 may obtain a signature forthe particular customer 402 or automated agent 406 and increase theconfidence level to reflect the likelihood that an automated agent isassociated with the signature of the particular customer 402 orautomated agent 406.

Inactive non-blocking CAPTCHAs may be presented in response 426 torequests 404 for a variety of reasons including at random, at aparticular sampling rate, in response to signals received from thecustomer 402 or automated agent 406 or for any other reason suitable forcollection information about automated agents 406. For example, theonline retailer 410 may, after presenting the non-blocking CAPTCHA to aset of traffic, receive an increased number of CAPTCHA solutions or anincreased number of CAPTCHA cookies. In response to the increased numberof CAPTCHA solutions or an increased number of CAPTCHA cookies, theonline retailer 410 may present the inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA inorder to determine the false positive rate and update the signaturelist. Furthermore, customers 402 interacting with the online retailer410 may receive a security check 404 presented in a modal pop-up box.The security check may include a purchase option as illustrated in FIG.4A. The online retailer may receive a response 410 indicating aninteraction with the security check 404. The online retailer 410 maythen update the signature list or the automated agent detection modelused to generate the signature list based at least in part on theresponse. The signature list may be updated by modifying the confidencelevel associated with the particular signature, such as decreasing theconfidence level.

In various embodiments, the webpage 408 may include a security checkcontained in a modal pop-up box configured such that the selection ofthe links is blocked or the links may be rendered inactive while themodal pop-up box is displayed. The security check may also include a“buy” button included inside the modal pop-up box. The buy button andother information included in the modal pop-up box may allow a customer402 of the online retailer 410 to complete a transaction on theelectronic commerce website operated by the online retailer 410. Themodal pop-up box, the buy button and other purchase information may beincluded as markup or executable code included in the response to therequest from the customer 402 or automated agent 406. The security checkmay also include various graphical user elements contained inside themodal pop-up box that may indicate that the request generated by thecustomer 402 may have been generated based at least in part by a humanactor. As described above in connection with FIG. 3, the informationincluded in the modal pop-up box may be configured such that a clientapplication operated by a human would display the information in themodal pop-up box, however an automated agent 406 receiving the samemodal pop-up box may not parse or render the information contained inthe modal pop-up box.

The security check may also include a graphical user element configuredas a “cancel” button and a graphical user element configured as a“close” button. The cancel button and close button may be graphical userinterface elements of the security check where the underlying code ofthe security check is configured such that selection by an input deviceof the cancel button causes the application displaying the securitycheck to remove the modal pop-up box and enable operation of theunderlay webpage. Any interaction with the modal pop-up box may bereceived as a signal by the request routing services of the onlineretailer 410 that the requestor is likely a human. Conversely, if therequest routing service receives a signal indicating that no interactionoccurred with the modal pop-up box, the signal may indicate that therequestor is likely an automated agent 406.

FIGS. 4A-4B further illustrate a webpage 408 including an inactivenon-blocking CAPTCHA. In various embodiments, the webpage 408illustrates what an automated agent parses and collects from a responseincluding a non-blocking CAPTCHA. As illustrated in FIGS. 4A-4B, thewebpage 408 includes various graphical user interface elements thatenable navigation throughout the electronic commerce website of whichthe webpage 408 is a part. The webpage 408 may be displayed by variousapplications, such as a mobile application, web browser, stand-aloneclient, mobile browser or other application configured to communicatewith the online retailer 410. In this example, the webpage 408 mayinclude code for a modal pop-up box, containing a security check, whichis rendered inactive or otherwise configured such that a clientapplication displaying the webpage 408 would not display the modalpop-up box. The CAPTCHA contained in the webpage 408 may be considerednon-blocking because an automated agent may receive the webpage 408 inresponse to a request for one or more resources of the online retailer410 without being restricted or blocked.

Referring now to FIG. 4B, automated agents 406 may transmit requests 412to the online retailer 410 and receive in response to the request 412 aresponse 414 including an inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA. The automatedagents 406 may receive the response 414 and determine based at least inpart code associated with the response 414 that a security check isincluded in the response 414. The automated agent 406 may then return aresponse to the security check 416 included in the response 414. Theonline retailer 410 may receive the response to the security check 416and determine the response was provided by an automated agent 406 basedat least in part on the inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA 408 transmitted tothe automated agent 406. For example, the response 414 may include anHTML file 420 containing scripts or similar executable code that whenexecuted provide a security check, however the response 414 may beconfigured such that the client application executed by the clientdevice operated by the customer 402 would not execute the scripts andtherefore the client device would not display the security check to thecustomer 402. Therefore, if the online retailer 410 receives a responseto the security check 416, the online retailer 410 may determine basedat least in part on the received response that the response was providedby an automated agent 406.

FIGS. 4A-4B further illustrate a webpage 408 including a non-blockingCAPTCHA which may be displayed by an application executed by a computingdevice enabling a customer to interact with an electronic commercewebsite operated by an online retailer 410. In this example, the webpage408 includes various navigational features which are rendered inactiveor otherwise blocked by a modal pop-up box. For instance, on theleft-hand side of the webpage 408, various links may link to one or moreother webpages that contain additional content corresponding todepartment pages and/or category pages. In this example, the linksappear as textual words which enable the links to be selected using anappropriate input device such as a keyboard, mouse, touchscreen or otherinput device. Selection of one of the links may cause an applicationdisplaying the webpage 408 to submit, pursuant to a URL associated withthe selected link by the programming of the webpage 408, an HTTP requestfor the content associated with the link to a server that provided thewebpage 408 or another server.

In this example, the modal pop-up box contains a purchase option for theitem displayed in the webpage 408. Other variations may be used inaccordance with the present disclosure. For example, the modal pop-upbox may contain a game, a discount code, a coupon, a media clip, asecurity check, a survey or other mechanism configured to receive humaninteraction.

The webpage 408 may be caused to be displayed for a variety of reasonsas described above in connection with FIGS. 2A-2C. For example, thewebpage 408 including the modal pop-up box may be displayed because thebot detection service indicated to the request routing service that arequest may have been generated by an automated agent 406. In anotherexample, webpage 408 including modal pop-up box may be displayed becausethe signature list included in the request routing service indicatedthat the request or requestor may be an automated agent 406. Thesignature list may indicate that the request or requestor may be anautomated agent 406 with a high confidence, low confidence, within aparticular confidence range or indication corresponding to the requestor requestor included in the signature list. The webpage 408 may furtherbe configured to display the modal pop-up box when a customer attemptsto consume an item offered for sale by the online retailer.

The webpage 408 may also be displayed for a variety of other reasons.For example, the request routing service may redirect the request to theCAPTCHA service at random, after processing a number of requests, at aparticular time of day or year, at a particular sampling rate or anyother reason suitable for mitigating automated agent activity.Completion of the purchase displayed on the modal pop-up box may causethe request to be processed by one or more services or servers of theonline retailer and a cookie to be returned along with the processedrequest. In various embodiments, the cookie may be transmitted to thecustomer 402 or the automated agent 406 even if the purchase is notcompleted, is completed unsuccessfully or if no interaction with themodal pop-up box occurs. The use of the cookie may then be tracked andused to further refine the bot detection models used by the botdetection service. Monitoring and tracking the use of cookies isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 7.

FIG. 5 shows a webpage 500 which may be displayed by an applicationexecuted by a computing device enabling a customer to interact with anelectronic commerce website operated by an online retailer. Asillustrated in FIG. 5, the webpage 500 includes various graphical userinterface elements that enable navigation throughout the electroniccommerce website of which the webpage 500 is a part. The webpage 500 maybe displayed by various applications, such as a mobile application orweb browser. In this example, the webpage 600 includes variousnavigational features. For instance, on the left-hand side of thewebpage 500, various links 510 may link to one or more other webpagesthat contain additional content corresponding to department pages and/orcategory pages. The department and/or category pages may correspond todepartment and category information used by the product informationservice. In this example, the links appear as textual words which enablethe links to be selected using an appropriate input device such as akeyboard, mouse, touchscreen or other input device. Selection of one ofthe links 510 may cause an application displaying the webpage 500 tosubmit, pursuant to a URL associated with the selected link by theprogramming of the webpage 500, an HTTP request for the contentassociated with the link to a server that provided the webpage 500 oranother server.

In this example, the webpage 500 also includes a graphical user elementconfigured as a “create” button 502. The create button 502 may be agraphical user interface element of the webpage 500 where the underlyingcode of the webpage 500 is configured such that selection by an inputdevice of the create button 502 causes information, inputted intowebpage 500, corresponding to the creation of a customer account to betransmitted to one or more servers of the online retailer. Further, thecreate button 502 may be greyed out or otherwise rendered inactive untila security check 504 is completed in order to prevent automated agentsfrom creating customer accounts with the online retailer. In thisexample, the security check 504 is displayed in a portion of the webpage500 normally reserved for advertisements. In accordance with the presentdisclosure, the security check 504 may also be displayed in a modalpop-up box as described above in connection with FIG. 3. Furthermore,the security check may be any mechanism configured to receive humaninteraction.

The webpage 500 may also include a graphical user element configured asa “cancel” button 506. The cancel button 506 may be a graphical userinterface element of the webpage 500 where the underlying code of thewebpage 500 is configured such that selection by an input device of thecancel button 506 causes the process of creating a user account to beterminated. The webpage 500 may be caused to be displayed for a varietyof reasons as described above in connection with FIGS. 2A-2C. Forexample, the webpage 500 may be displayed because the bot detectionservice indicated to the request routing service that a request may havebeen generated by an automated agent. The webpage 500 may also bedisplayed for a variety of other reasons. For example, the requestrouting service may require a CAPTCHA to be inserted into the webpage500 at random, after processing a number of requests, at a particulartime of day or year or any other reason suitable for mitigatingautomated agent activity. Completion of a security check 504 displayedon the webpage 500 may cause the request to be processed by one or moreservices or servers of the online retailer and the customer account tobe created based at least in part on the information inputted intowebpage 500.

The security check 504 displayed in the webpage 500 may be pre-generatedand stored in one or more storage systems of the online retailer or maybe generated upon receipt of the redirected request. The security checkmay also be partially pre-generated and completed upon receipt of theredirected request. For example, the rendering service may generate aframe work for the security check including placeholders for images ofitems and text-entry fields where the response to the security check maybe entered. Upon receipt of the tagged requests the rendering servicemay determine, based at least in part on the navigational historyassociated with the request, the most recently viewed items and includethose items in the security check. The rendering service may determineitems to include in the security check based at least in part oninformation in the customer's account history or the customer'snavigational history in combination with other items, such as items thatare viewed infrequently or items that have not been viewed by thecustomer.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, a non-blocking CAPTCHA may be presented inresponse to a request to create an account with the online retailer. Theonline retailer may take various mitigation actions based at least inpart on the signal returned from the non-blocking CAPTCHA. For example,if the response to the non-blocking CAPTCHA does not include a CAPTCHAsolution or other human interaction, the online retailer may prevent thecreation of the customer account. Furthermore, if the online retailerprevents the creation of the customer account, the online retailer mayalso transmit an indication that the customer account has been createdin order to prevent the automated agent from determining that the onlineretailer has detected the activity of the automated agent.

FIG. 6 shows an illustration of a webpage 600 including variousgraphical user interface elements that enable navigation throughout awebsite of which the webpage 600 is a part. In this example, the webpage600 is part of an electronic marketplace of an online retailer providinggoods and services as well as advertisements and other content. Forinstance, on the left-hand side of the webpage 600, various links 610may link to one or more other webpages that contain additional contentcorresponding to department pages and/or category pages. In thisexample, the links appear as textual words which enable the links to beselected using an appropriate input device such as a keyboard, mouse,touchscreen or other input device. Selection of one of the links 610 maycause an application displaying the webpage 600 to submit, pursuant to aURL associated with the selected link by the programming of the webpage600, an HTTP request for the content associated with the link to aserver that provided the webpage 600 or another server. In this example,the webpage 600 also includes a graphical user element configured as a“buy” button 602. The buy button 602 may be a graphical user interfaceelement of the webpage 600 where the underlying code of the webpage 600is configured such that selection by an input device of the buy button602 causes information corresponding to the security check 604 displayedon the webpage 600 to be transmitted to one or more servers of theonline retailer. The buy button 602 may also be configured such that thebutton is inactive until a security check 604 is completed.

In this example, the webpage 600 contains a security check 604 and agame 608 in order to capture human interaction. In various embodiments,webpage 600 contains only the security check or the game in order tocapture human interaction. The game 608 may be implemented in such a waythat an automated agent may not interact with the game or, if theautomated agent does interact with the game, it is difficult for theautomated agent to simulate a human interacting with the game. Forexample, the game illustrated in FIG. 6 contains a simulated bow andarrow along with a target, a user interacting with the game 608 may usean input device such as a mouse to aim and fire the bow and arrow at thetarget. A human playing the game may have difficulties being accurateover multiple attempts at hitting the target. However, an automatedagent may have difficulties simulating the inaccuracy of a humaninteracting with the game. An automated agent may exhibit the sameinteraction with the game over multiple attempts. A variety of differentgames may be used in accordance with the present disclosure such as wordgames, reaction games, matching games or any other game suitable fordetecting automated agent activity. A signal received by the onlineretailer indicating that the game 608 has received one or moreinteractions may indicate that the webpage 600 was transmitted inresponse to a request generated based at least in part by the operationof a human.

The security check 604 and/or the game 608 may be caused to be displayedon the webpage 600 for a variety of reasons as described above inconnection with FIGS. 2A-2C. For example, the routing service may tag arequest based at least in part on the signature list and the policyservice may cause the security check 604 and/or the game 608 to bedisplayed based at least in part on the tag. The rendering service maythen obtain the security check 604 and/or the game 608 to be displayedto the customer on the webpage 600. The game 608 may also include one ormore incentives to attract human interaction. For example, customers maybe given a free gift of discount for achieving a certain score in thegame or for setting the high score in the game. Furthermore, customersmay be asked to compete in the game with other players and givenpromotional items for winning the game.

The webpage 600 may also be configured such that the game 608 and thesecurity check 604 are rendered inactive or otherwise caused not to bedisplayed such as the inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA described above inconnection with FIGS. 4A-4B. For example, the online retailer maysuspect that automated agents are interacting with the game, inresponse, the online retailer may cause the webpage 600 to be displayedsuch that a client application displaying the webpage 600 would notdisplay the game 608 and/or the security check 604. As a result, theautomated agent may still interact with the game 608 and/or the securitycheck 604 included in the code of the webpage 600. The online retailermay then receive a signal indicating that one or more interactionsoccurred with the game 608 and/or the security check 604 despite thewebpage 600 being configured such that a client application displayingthe webpage 600 would not display the game 608 and/or the security check604. The online retailer may then increase the confidence level of thesignature associated with the request for the webpage 600.

FIG. 7 shows an environment 700 in which an online retailer 710 maydetect the activity of automated agents based at least in part on theuse of a cookie 702 or similar token by the automated agents. The cookie702 may be any parameter transmitted with the request that is capable ofbeing tracked by the online retailer 710. The online retailer 710 mayoperate a website that provides an online marketplace where customersmay purchase and offer for sale various goods and services. The onlineretailer 710 receives one or more requests to access resources of theonline retailer at a request routing service 706. For example, anautomated agent 708 may, using a computing device executing theautomated agent 708, request a webpage containing information from theonline retailer 710. The automated agent 708 executed by the computingdevice may transmit one or more HTTP requests to the request routingservice 706 of the online retailer 710. The request routing service 706may be a collection of computing resources collectively configured toreceive HTTP requests and direct the HTTP requests to one or more otherservices of the online retailer 710. The request routing service 706 mayalso tag requests based at least in part on a signature list managed bythe bot detection service.

The request routing service 706 may direct requests using HTTP redirector other routing techniques. The request routing servicer 706 may beresponsible for directing requests to the appropriate service of theonline retailer 710 for processing. The request routing service 706 maytag requests as low confidence automated agent traffic, high confidenceautomated agent traffic or the request routing service 706 may not tagthe request. The request routing service 706 may transmit the cookie 702to the computing device executing the automated agent 708 over theconnection 712. The online retailer 710 may monitor the total number ofcookies 702 issued using a maximum cookie counter or similar mechanismfor tracking the total number of cookies 702 issued at any given timeperiod. For example, cookies 702 may be throttled in order to limitautomated agents' abilities to utilize cookies 702 to avoid blockingCAPTCHA. The cookies 702 may be configured with a time to live andexpire at the termination of the time to live. For example, automatedagents' use of cookies 702 may be reduced by setting a maximum number ofcookies 702 that can be issued at any given time and limiting thecookies' 702 validity to a limited period.

Returning to FIG. 7, connection 712 may be any suitable connection fortransmitting communications between computer systems or within the samecomputer system such as a network, private network, virtual privatenetwork, inter-process communications, service call, function call orother connection. For example, the request routing service 706 maytransmit the cookie 702 in response to the automated agent 708submitting a solution to a CAPTCHA 704 regardless of whether the CAPTCHA704 was solved correctly or incorrectly.

The cookie 702 may be configured to enable access to one or moreresources of the online retailer 710 when submitted with a request tothe request routing service 706. The automated agent 708 may share thecookie 702 over a connection 714 with one or more other automated agents718. The connection 714 may be any suitable connection for transmittingcommunications between computer systems or within the same computersystem such as a network, private network, virtual private network,inter-process communications, service call, function call or otherconnection. For example, the one or more other automated agents 718 maybe executed by one or more virtual machines operating on the samecomputing device as automated agent 708. The one or more other automatedagents 718 may use the cookie 702 in order to access one or moreresources of the online retailer 710 by submitting the cookie 702 withmultiple HTTP requests to the request routing service 706. The requestrouting service 706 or one or more other services of the online retailer710 may track the use of the cookie 702 and determine, based at least inpart on the frequency and the number of requests that include the cookie702, that the cookie 702 was submitted by an automated agent. The botdetection service may then update the signature list based at least inpart on the signature associated with the HTTP requests submitted withthe cookie 702.

FIG. 8 shows an environment 800 in which customers can connect to anonline retailer 810 in order to interact with an electronic marketplaceoperated by the online retailer 810. Customers can connect to the onlineretailer 810 through one or more computing devices 802. The computingdevice 802 may include personal computers, smartphones, tablets or anyother computing device capable of connecting to the online retailer 810.The computing device may transmit data over a network to a requestrouting service 806 operated by the online retailer 810. The requestrouting service 806 may direct communications (also referred to asrequests) from the computing device 802 to the appropriate service ofthe online retailer 810. For example, the request routing service 806may direct all webpage requests to a rendering service 814 in order torender and transmit the webpage in response to the request submitted bycomputing device 802. The request routing service 806 may also transmitcommunications received from the computing device 802 to a bot detectionservice 812. The bot detection service 812 may contain one or more otherservices to enable detection of communications transmitted by one ormore automated agents. The bot detection service 812 may also receiveinformation corresponding to the communications received from computingdevice 802 from the rendering service 814. The information may includesignals received in response to webpages including the non-blockingCAPTCHA and the inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA. Furthermore, the botdetection service may also receive information corresponding to cookiesor other tokens submitted with the requests from computing device 802.

The bot detection service 812 may contain a real-time bot detectionservice 822 and a click tracking service 820. The real-time botdetection service 822 may be a collection of computing resourcescollectively configured to calculate a score for one or more requestsreceived from the request routing service 806, where the calculatedscore correlates to the probability of a particular request beinggenerated by an automated agent. The real-time bot detection service 822may determine the probability of a communication received from therequest routing service 806 being generated by an automated agent nearcontemporaneously with receipt of the communication. For example, thereal-time bot detection service 822 may determine the likelihood of acommunication being generated by an automated agent based at least inpart on the type of communication transmitted from the computing device802.

The click tracking service 820 may be a collection of computingresources collectively configured to calculate a score for one or morerequests based on a navigational history of the one or more requestors,where the score correlates to the probability of a particular requestbeing generated by an automated agent. The click tracking service 820may determine the probability of a communication being generated by anautomated agent based at least in part on clickstream data. Theclickstream data may include data corresponding to input received by oneor more input devices such as a mouse or touchscreen and datacorresponding to navigation history of the computing devices 802. Forexample, the click tracking service 820 may determine, based on thecomputing device 802, navigational history consisting entirely ofwebpages offering promotional items that the communication is likelygenerated by an automated agent.

The real-time bot detection service 822 or the click tracking service820 may determine the probability of a particular communication beinggenerated by an automated agent and return the probability to the botdetection service 812. The bot detection service 812 may then generate asignature list 804 based at least in part on the information receivedfrom the real-time bot detection service 822 and the click trackingservice 820. The bot detection service 812 may then transmit a copy ofthe signature list 804 to the request routing service 806. The requestrouting service 806 may then use the signature list to tag the requestbefore routing the request to the rendering service 814. The renderingservice 814 may then transmit information corresponding to the tagincluded in the request to a policy service 816.

The policy service 816 may be a collection of computing resourcescollectively configured to determine whether to include a security checkin response to a request and the type of security check to include. Forexample, the policy service 816 may be a computer system configured witha set of rules that indicate one or more actions to perform based atleast in part on the confidence level associated with a particularrequest. The policy service 816 may receive a service call from therendering service 814, including the request and the tag. The policyservice 816 may then scan the set of rules to determine an actionassociated with the tag. The policy service 816 may also performperiodic tests in order to determine the accuracy of the bot detectionmodels used by the bot detection service 812. Furthermore, thedeterminations of the policy service 816 may be informed by a humanoperator. For example, an administrator of the online retailer 810 maycause the policy service 816 to perform one or more tests or take aparticular action based on a tagged request.

The rendering service 814 may receive information from the policyservice 816 indicating one or more security checks to include inresponse to the request. For example, the policy service may indicate tothe rendering service to include a non-blocking CAPTCHA, as describedabove in connection with FIG. 3, in response to the request. Therendering service 814 may generate a webpage to transmit in response tothe request. The rendering service 814 or the request routing service806 may transmit the webpage to the computing device 802. The requestrouting service 806 may then transmit a signal received in response tothe webpage to the rendering service 814 and/or the bot detectionservice 812. The signal may include another HTTP request including oneor more parameters. The bot detection service 812 may then use thesignal to update the signature list 804 and transmit the updatedsignature list 804 to the request routing service 806. For example, thesignal may indicate that the request received from the computing device802 was generated at least in part by a human and the bot detectionservice 812 may reduce the confidence level of the signature associatedwith computing device 802.

FIG. 9 shows an illustrative example of process 900 which may be used todetect an automated agent and determine the false positive rate of oneor more detection models used by a bot detection service. The process900 may be performed by any suitable system such as the request routingservice 806 and the rendering service 814, described above in connectionto FIG. 8. Returning to FIG. 9, in an embodiment, the process 900includes receiving a request at a request routing service 902. Therequests may be received by a request routing service operated by theonline retailers as described above in connection with FIG. 8. Therequest received at the request routing service may be generated by anautomated agent and may include a cookie. The requests may then betagged based at least in part on the signature list 904. The signaturelist may be generated by the bot detection service described above inconnection with FIG. 8. The signature list may include a list of IPaddresses for the computing device suspected of executing automatedagents.

The tags may be included as a parameter to an HTTP redirect requesttransmitted to the rendering service. The requests, including the tag,may be forwarded to a rendering service 906. The tag may indicate theconfidence level corresponding to the signature of the computing deviceresponsible for submitting the request. Once received by the renderingservice, information corresponding to the tag may be transmitted to thepolicy service in order to determine one or more CAPTCHA actions basedat least in part on a tag 908. For example, the tag information mayindicate that the bot detection service has determined that thecomputing device responsible for the request is an automated agent witha high confidence level. The policy service may then determine toinclude a particular type of CAPTCHA in order to block the automatedagents' access to the resources of the online retailer.

The policy service may also determine to present the suspected automatedagent with a non-blocking CAPTCHA in order to collect more informationcorresponding to the computing device and the suspected automated agent.For example, the policy service may determine to present in response tothe request a webpage configured to include a CAPTCHA and to respond toa CAPTCHA solution with a cookie regardless of whether the solution iscorrect. This may enable the bot detection service to determine if therequest is associated with an automated agent and detect other automatedagents based on the use of the cookie. The policy service may transmitone or more CAPTCHA actions to be included in the response to therequest to the rendering service. The rendering service may then obtainthe response and transmit the response including the one or more CAPTCHAactions 910. For example, the rendering service may receive from thepolicy service an indication to include an inactive non-blocking CAPTCHAin a webpage to be transmitted in response to a request. The renderingservice may then obtain the webpage to be transmitted in response to therequest and configure the webpage such that the security check containedin the code for the webpage is rendered inactive. The rendering serviceor some other service of the online retailer may then transmit datacorresponding to the response to the bot detection service 912. The datacorresponding to the response may indicate a particular CAPTCHA actionincluded in the response, a particular signature associated with theresponse or any other data suitable for use in detecting automated agentactivity. The data may be used to track responses to the one or moreCAPTCHA actions and update the bot detection service based at least inpart on responses. The responses may include not receiving a response tothe one or more CAPTCHA actions. For example, an automated agent mayreceive a security check included in a modal dialog box, the automatedagent may be configured to ignore or otherwise not transmit a responseto the security check included in the modal dialog box. The botdetection service may then determine that no response to the securitycheck included in the modal dialog box was received and update theautomated agent detection model based at least in part on not receivinga response to the security check included in the modal dialog box.Furthermore, updating the bot detection service may include updating thecollection of signatures included in the signature list by at leastmodifying the confidence level associated with one or more signatures inthe collection of signatures, updating one or more automated agentdetection models, defining one or more new automated agent detectionmodels or other actions suitable for detecting automated agent activity.

FIG. 10 shows an illustrative example of process 1000 which may be usedto improve automated agent detecting based at least in part on signalsreceived from requestors accessing one or more resources of the onlineretailer. The process 1000 may be performed by any suitable system suchas the request routing service 806 and the bot detection service 812,described above in connection to FIG. 8. Returning to FIG. 10, in anembodiment, the process 1000 includes receiving a signal from arequestor at the request routing service 1002. The signal may bereceived in response to a webpage transmitted by the rendering serviceto a requestor. The signal may be any information received from therequestor capable of indicating one or more interactions with thewebpage transmitted in response to the request, such as the signalsdescribed above in connection with FIGS. 2A-2C. For example, the webpagemay include code that enables the online retailer to receive informationcorresponding to the requestors' interaction with the webpage includingmouse movement or keystrokes. Interactions with the webpage may alsoinclude selecting a link one the webpage, playing a game on the webpage,providing a solution to a security check included in the webpage or anyother interaction the customer may take with the webpage.

The signal or a portion thereof may be transmitted to a bot detectionsystem 1004. The request routing service may forward the signal to thebot detection system. In various embodiments, the signal is included ina request to the online retailer and the request routing service directsthe request to the rendering service, the rendering service thenextracts the signal from the request and transmits the signal to the botdetection system. For example, the request may include a cookie and therendering service may extract information from the cookie capable ofidentifying the requestor and transmit the information to the botdetection service. With the information corresponding to the cookie, thebot detection service may further refine the detection models used. Thebot detection service may receive information from the request routingservice and/or the rendering service and determine to update thesignature list based at least in part on the received signals 1006.

For example, the signal may indicate that the requestor performed one ormore interactions with an inactive CAPTCHA contained on a webpage. Basedat least in part on the one or more interactions, the bot detectionservice may increase the confidence level of the signature associatedwith the particular requestor in the signature list. The bot detectionsystem may correlate multiple signals and may further wait to receivemultiple signals before updating the signature list. For example, thebot detection service may wait until a signal from a non-blockingCAPTCHA and an inactive non-blocking CAPTCHA are received beforedetermining to update the signature list. The bot detection system maythen update a signature list 1008 or cause another service of the onlineretailer to update the signature list. Once updated, the signature listmay be transmitted to the request routing service 1010. For example, thebot detection service may update the signature list and transmit thelist to the request routing service and indicate that the transmittedsignature list is an update for one or more previous signature lists. Invarious embodiments, the bot detection system transmits information tothe request routing service causing the request routing service to makeone or more updates to the signature list.

FIG. 11 shows an illustrative example of process 1100 which may be usedto detect automated agent activity based at least in part on the use ofone or more cookies. The process 1100 may be performed by any suitablesystem such as the request routing service 806 and the bot detectionservice 812 described above in connection to FIG. 8. Returning to FIG.11, in an embodiment, the process 1100 includes receiving a cookieassociated with a particular request 1102. The cookie may be associatedwith a particular CAPTCHA solution or a particular incorrect CAPTCHAsolution. Furthermore, the cookie may be valid for a certain period oftime or for a certain number of uses. The cookie may be received at therequest routing service in connection with a request for access to oneor more resources of online retailer and transmitted to the renderingservice for processing of the request. The rendering service may thenforward the cookie or information associated with the cookie to the botdetection service.

The bot detection service may then detect automated agent activity basedat least in part on the use of a cookie 1104. For example, the requestrouting service may receive multiple copies of the same cookie fromdifferent IP addresses. The bot detection service or one or more otherservices of the online retailer may cause the cookie to be invalidated1106. The online retailer may maintain a list of active and validcookies, the cookies may also be associated with a particular signaturein the signature list. The bot detection service may then update thesignature list based at least in part on information associated with theuse of the cookie 1108. For example, the bot detection service maydetermine that a copy of the cookie has been received from multipleautomated agents and increase the confidence level associated with thesignature of each of the automated agents in the signature list. Onceupdated, the signature list may be transmitted to the request routingservice 1110. For example, the bot detection service may update thesignature list and transmit the list to the request routing service andindicate that the transmitted signature list is an update for one ormore previous signature lists. In various embodiments, the bot detectionsystem transmits information to the request routing service causing therequest routing service to make one or more updates to the signaturelist.

FIG. 12 illustrates aspects of an example environment 1200 forimplementing aspects in accordance with various embodiments. As will beappreciated, although a web-based environment is used for purposes ofexplanation, different environments may be used, as appropriate, toimplement various embodiments. The environment includes an electronicclient device 1202, which can include any appropriate device operable tosend and/or receive requests, messages or information over anappropriate network 1204 and, in some embodiments, convey informationback to a user of the device. Examples of such client devices includepersonal computers, cell phones, handheld messaging devices, laptopcomputers, tablet computers, set-top boxes, personal data assistants,embedded computer systems, electronic book readers and the like. Thenetwork can include any appropriate network, including an intranet, theInternet, a cellular network, a local area network, a satellite networkor any other such network and/or combination thereof. Components usedfor such a system can depend at least in part upon the type of networkand/or environment selected. Protocols and components for communicatingvia such a network are well known and will not be discussed herein indetail. Communication over the network can be enabled by wired orwireless connections and combinations thereof. In this example, thenetwork includes the Internet, as the environment includes a web server1206 for receiving requests and serving content in response thereto,although for other networks an alternative device serving a similarpurpose could be used as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill inthe art.

The illustrative environment includes at least one application server1208 and a data store 1210. It should be understood that there can beseveral application servers, layers or other elements, processes orcomponents, which may be chained or otherwise configured, which caninteract to perform tasks such as obtaining data from an appropriatedata store. Servers, as used herein, may be implemented in various ways,such as hardware devices or virtual computer systems. In some contexts,servers may refer to a programming module being executed on a computersystem. As used herein, unless otherwise stated or clear from context,the term “data store” refers to any device or combination of devicescapable of storing, accessing and retrieving data, which may include anycombination and number of data servers, databases, data storage devicesand data storage media, in any standard, distributed, virtual orclustered environment. The application server can include anyappropriate hardware, software and firmware for integrating with thedata store as needed to execute aspects of one or more applications forthe client device, handling some or all of the data access and businesslogic for an application. The application server may provide accesscontrol services in cooperation with the data store and is able togenerate content including, but not limited to, text, graphics, audio,video and/or other content usable to be provided to the user, which maybe served to the user by the web server in the form of HyperText MarkupLanguage (“HTML”), Extensible Markup Language (“XML”), JavaScript,Cascading Style Sheets (“CSS”) or another appropriate client-sidestructured language. Content transferred to a client device may beprocessed by the client device to provide the content in one or moreforms including, but not limited to, forms that are perceptible to theuser audibly, visually and/or through other senses including touch,taste, and/or smell. The handling of all requests and responses, as wellas the delivery of content between the client device 1202 and theapplication server 1208, can be handled by the web server using PHP:Hypertext Preprocessor (“PHP”), Python, Ruby, Perl, Java, HTML, XML oranother appropriate server-side structured language in this example. Itshould be understood that the web and application servers are notrequired and are merely example components, as structured code discussedherein can be executed on any appropriate device or host machine asdiscussed elsewhere herein. Further, operations described herein asbeing performed by a single device may, unless otherwise clear fromcontext, be performed collectively by multiple devices, which may form adistributed and/or virtual system.

The data store 1210 can include several separate data tables, databases,data documents, dynamic data storage schemes and/or other data storagemechanisms and media for storing data relating to a particular aspect ofthe present disclosure. For example, the data store illustrated mayinclude mechanisms for storing production data 1212 and user information1216, which can be used to serve content for the production side. Thedata store also is shown to include a mechanism for storing log data1214, which can be used for reporting, analysis or other such purposes.It should be understood that there can be many other aspects that mayneed to be stored in the data store, such as page image information andaccess rights information, which can be stored in any of the abovelisted mechanisms as appropriate or in additional mechanisms in the datastore 1210. The data store 1210 is operable, through logic associatedtherewith, to receive instructions from the application server 1208 andobtain, update or otherwise process data in response thereto. Theapplication server 1208 may provide static, dynamic or a combination ofstatic and dynamic data in response to the received instructions.Dynamic data, such as data used in web logs (blogs), shoppingapplications, news services and other such applications may be generatedby server-side structured languages as described herein or may beprovided by a content management system (“CMS”) operating on, or underthe control of, the application server. In one example, a user, througha device operated by the user, might submit a search request for acertain type of item. In this case, the data store might access the userinformation to verify the identity of the user and can access thecatalog detail information to obtain information about items of thattype. The information then can be returned to the user, such as in aresults listing on a web page that the user is able to view via abrowser on the user device 1202. Information for a particular item ofinterest can be viewed in a dedicated page or window of the browser. Itshould be noted, however, that embodiments of the present disclosure arenot necessarily limited to the context of web pages, but may be moregenerally applicable to processing requests in general, where therequests are not necessarily requests for content.

Each server typically will include an operating system that providesexecutable program instructions for the general administration andoperation of that server and typically will include a computer-readablestorage medium (e.g., a hard disk, random access memory, read onlymemory, etc.) storing instructions that, when executed by a processor ofthe server, allow the server to perform its intended functions. Suitableimplementations for the operating system and general functionality ofthe servers are known or commercially available and are readilyimplemented by persons having ordinary skill in the art, particularly inlight of the disclosure herein.

The environment, in one embodiment, is a distributed and/or virtualcomputing environment utilizing several computer systems and componentsthat are interconnected via communication links, using one or morecomputer networks or direct connections. However, it will be appreciatedby those of ordinary skill in the art that such a system could operateequally well in a system having fewer or a greater number of componentsthan are illustrated in FIG. 12. Thus, the depiction of the system 1200in FIG. 12 should be taken as being illustrative in nature and notlimiting to the scope of the disclosure.

The various embodiments further can be implemented in a wide variety ofoperating environments, which in some cases can include one or more usercomputers, computing devices or processing devices which can be used tooperate any of a number of applications. User or client devices caninclude any of a number of general purpose personal computers, such asdesktop, laptop or tablet computers running a standard operating system,as well as cellular, wireless and handheld devices running mobilesoftware and capable of supporting a number of networking and messagingprotocols. Such a system also can include a number of workstationsrunning any of a variety of commercially-available operating systems andother known applications for purposes such as development and databasemanagement. These devices also can include other electronic devices,such as dummy terminals, thin-clients, gaming systems and other devicescapable of communicating via a network. These devices also can includevirtual devices such as virtual machines, hypervisors and other virtualdevices capable of communicating via a network.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure utilize at least onenetwork that would be familiar to those skilled in the art forsupporting communications using any of a variety ofcommercially-available protocols, such as Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”), User Datagram Protocol (“UDP”),protocols operating in various layers of the Open System Interconnection(“OSI”) model, File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”), Universal Plug and Play(“UpnP”), Network File System (“NFS”), Common Internet File System(“CIFS”) and AppleTalk. The network can be, for example, a local areanetwork, a wide-area network, a virtual private network, the Internet,an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network, aninfrared network, a wireless network, a satellite network and anycombination thereof.

In embodiments utilizing a web server, the web server can run any of avariety of server or mid-tier applications, including Hypertext TransferProtocol (“HTTP”) servers, FTP servers, Common Gateway Interface (“CGI”)servers, data servers, Java servers, Apache servers and businessapplication servers. The server(s) also may be capable of executingprograms or scripts in response to requests from user devices, such asby executing one or more web applications that may be implemented as oneor more scripts or programs written in any programming language, such asJava®, C, C# or C++, or any scripting language, such as Ruby, PHP, Perl,Python or TCL, as well as combinations thereof. The server(s) may alsoinclude database servers, including without limitation thosecommercially available from Oracle®, Microsoft®, Sybase® and IBM® aswell as open-source servers such as MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, MongoDB,and any other server capable of storing, retrieving and accessingstructured or unstructured data. Database servers may includetable-based servers, document-based servers, unstructured servers,relational servers, non-relational servers or combinations of theseand/or other database servers.

The environment can include a variety of data stores and other memoryand storage media as discussed above. These can reside in a variety oflocations, such as on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) oneor more of the computers or remote from any or all of the computersacross the network. In a particular set of embodiments, the informationmay reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilledin the art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functionsattributed to the computers, servers or other network devices may bestored locally and/or remotely, as appropriate. Where a system includescomputerized devices, each such device can include hardware elementsthat may be electrically coupled via a bus, the elements including, forexample, at least one central processing unit (“CPU” or “processor”), atleast one input device (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, controller, touchscreen or keypad) and at least one output device (e.g., a displaydevice, printer or speaker). Such a system may also include one or morestorage devices, such as disk drives, optical storage devices andsolid-state storage devices such as random access memory (“RAM”) orread-only memory (“ROM”), as well as removable media devices, memorycards, flash cards, etc.

Such devices also can include a computer-readable storage media reader,a communications device (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless orwired), an infrared communication device, etc.) and working memory asdescribed above. The computer-readable storage media reader can beconnected with, or configured to receive, a computer-readable storagemedium, representing remote, local, fixed and/or removable storagedevices as well as storage media for temporarily and/or more permanentlycontaining, storing, transmitting and retrieving computer-readableinformation. The system and various devices also typically will includea number of software applications, modules, services or other elementslocated within at least one working memory device, including anoperating system and application programs, such as a client applicationor web browser. It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments mayhave numerous variations from that described above. For example,customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements mightbe implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, suchas applets) or both. Further, connection to other computing devices suchas network input/output devices may be employed.

Storage media and computer readable media for containing code, orportions of code, can include any appropriate media known or used in theart, including storage media and communication media, such as, but notlimited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmissionof information such as computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data, including RAM, ROM, Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (“EEPROM”), flash memory or other memorytechnology, Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (“CD-ROM”), digital versatiledisk (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or any othermedium which can be used to store the desired information and which canbe accessed by the system device. Based on the disclosure and teachingsprovided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciateother ways and/or methods to implement the various embodiments.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the claims.

Other variations are within the spirit of the present disclosure. Thus,while the disclosed techniques are susceptible to various modificationsand alternative constructions, certain illustrated embodiments thereofare shown in the drawings and have been described above in detail. Itshould be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit theinvention to the specific form or forms disclosed, but on the contrary,the intention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructionsand equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention, asdefined in the appended claims.

The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in thecontext of describing the disclosed embodiments (especially in thecontext of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both thesingular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearlycontradicted by context. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including”and “containing” are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning“including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. The term“connected,” when unmodified and referring to physical connections, isto be construed as partly or wholly contained within, attached to orjoined together, even if there is something intervening. Recitation ofranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthandmethod of referring individually to each separate value falling withinthe range, unless otherwise indicated herein and each separate value isincorporated into the specification as if it were individually recitedherein. The use of the term “set” (e.g., “a set of items”) or “subset”unless otherwise noted or contradicted by context, is to be construed asa nonempty collection comprising one or more members. Further, unlessotherwise noted or contradicted by context, the term “subset” of acorresponding set does not necessarily denote a proper subset of thecorresponding set, but the subset and the corresponding set may beequal.

Conjunctive language, such as phrases of the form “at least one of A, B,and C,” or “at least one of A, B and C,” unless specifically statedotherwise or otherwise clearly contradicted by context, is otherwiseunderstood with the context as used in general to present that an item,term, etc., may be either A or B or C, or any nonempty subset of the setof A and B and C. For instance, in the illustrative example of a sethaving three members, the conjunctive phrases “at least one of A, B, andC” and “at least one of A, B and C” refer to any of the following sets:{A}, {B}, {C}, {A, B}, {A, C}, {B, C}, {A, B, C}. Thus, such conjunctivelanguage is not generally intended to imply that certain embodimentsrequire at least one of A, at least one of B and at least one of C eachto be present.

Operations of processes described herein can be performed in anysuitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearlycontradicted by context. Processes described herein (or variationsand/or combinations thereof) may be performed under the control of oneor more computer systems configured with executable instructions and maybe implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or morecomputer programs or one or more applications) executing collectively onone or more processors, by hardware or combinations thereof. The codemay be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in theform of a computer program comprising a plurality of instructionsexecutable by one or more processors. The computer-readable storagemedium may be non-transitory.

The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”)provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate embodiments ofthe invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of theinvention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specificationshould be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essentialto the practice of the invention.

Preferred embodiments of this disclosure are described herein, includingthe best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention.Variations of those preferred embodiments may become apparent to thoseof ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. Theinventors expect skilled artisans to employ such variations asappropriate and the inventors intend for embodiments of the presentdisclosure to be practiced otherwise than as specifically describedherein. Accordingly, the scope of the present disclosure includes allmodifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in theclaims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, anycombination of the above-described elements in all possible variationsthereof is encompassed by the scope of the present disclosure unlessotherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

Embodiments of the disclosure can be described in view of the followingclauses:

-   -   1. A computer-implemented method for presenting a non-blocking        security check in response to requests to access one or more        resources, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured withexecutable instructions,

-   -   receiving a request for a webpage;    -   processing the request at a rendering service by at least:    -   transmitting a service call to a policy service, the service        call including information corresponding to the request; and    -   obtaining a security check indicated by the policy service in        response to the service call, the security check configured to        be used to distinguish humans from automated agents; and    -   configuring the webpage such that the security check is        configured to appear in a modal pop-up box of the webpage and        such that the webpage includes one or more uniform resource        locators, separate from the modal pop-up box, that are        inaccessible for selection by a user without clearing the modal        pop-up box; and transmitting the webpage in response to the        request.    -   2. The computer-implemented method of any of the preceding        clauses, wherein the computer-implemented method includes:    -   receiving an indication of an interaction with the webpage; and    -   updating a collection of signatures based at least in part on        the indication.    -   3. The computer-implemented method of any of the preceding        clauses, wherein configuring the webpage includes configuring        the webpage such that the webpage lacks uniform resource        locators linking to information for which successful solution to        the security check is required.    -   4. The computer-implemented method of any of the preceding        clauses wherein the computer-implemented method further        includes:    -   receiving an indication of an interaction with the webpage, the        indication indicating interaction with the webpage without        submission of a solution to the security check; and    -   updating a collection of signatures to increase a confidence        level of a particular signature associated with the indication,        based at least in part on the indication.    -   5. A system, comprising:    -   at least one computing device configured to implement one or        more services, wherein the one or more services are configured        to:    -   receive a request to access one or more resources of a service        provider;    -   determine, in response to the request, to include a security        check in a response to the request, the response also being        configured to include one or more references to information that        are unselectable by a user while the security check is displayed        and the one or more references to information are obtainable by        an automated agent;    -   transmit the response to the request;    -   at a time after transmitting the response to the request, make a        determination whether the security check has been interacted        with; and    -   perform one or more actions based at least in part on the        determination.    -   6. The system of clause 5, wherein the one or more services are        further configured to:    -   receive a second request including a solution to the security        check; and    -   transmit a cookie in response to the second request regardless        of whether the solution to the security check indicates        automated agent activity, where the cookie is configured to        allow access to the one or more resources of the service        provider.    -   7. The system of clauses 5 or 6, wherein the determination of        whether the security check has been interacted with is based at        least in part on the second request.    -   8. The system of any of clauses 5-7 wherein the response is        further configured to include one or more references to        information that are unselectable by the user while the security        check is displayed includes configuring the response to include        a modal pop-up box containing the security check.    -   9. The system of any of clauses 5-8 wherein making the        determination is based at least in part on receiving a second        request referencing at least one of the references to        information of the one or more references to information.    -   10. The system of any of clauses 5-9 wherein the at least one        computing device configured to implement one or more services        are further configured to:    -   tag the received request based at least in part on a collection        of signatures; and    -   call a policy service responsible for determining to include the        security check in the response to the request.    -   11. The system of any of clauses 5-10, wherein performing the        one or more actions includes updating an automated agent        detection model or a human user detection model based at least        in part on the determination of whether the security check has        been interacted with.    -   12. The system of any of clauses 5-11, wherein determining to        include the security check in the response to the request is        based at least in part on a test to determine a false positive        rate of one or more automated agent detection models.    -   13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having        stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by        one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer        system to at least:    -   receive a request;    -   transmit a response to the request, the response being        configured such that when rendered, the response provides a user        interface that includes a security check and one or more        references to information that are unselectable using the        provided user interface as a result of the security check being        present in the provided user interface and the one or more        references to information are obtainable by an automated agent;    -   receive data indicating whether an interaction was performed        with the security check; and    -   update a signature list based at least in part on whether the        interaction was performed.    -   14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of        clause 13, wherein the instructions that cause the computer        system to transmit the response to the request including the        security check further include instructions that cause the        computer system to configure the response such that the security        check is displayed in a modal manner.    -   15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of        clauses 13 or 14 wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to receive data indicating whether the        interaction was performed with the security check further        include instructions that cause the computer system to receive        data indicating the interaction was causing a modal pop-up box        to be closed.    -   16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 13-15 wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to update the signature list further include        instructions that cause the computer system to increase a        confidence level that a particular signature is associated with        the automated agent.    -   17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 13-16 wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to update the signature list further include        instructions that cause the computer system to increase a        confidence level that an IP address associated with a particular        signature in the signature list is associated with the automated        agent.    -   18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 13-17, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to update the signature list further include        instructions that cause the computer system to associate a        cookie with a particular signature in the signature list.    -   19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 13-18 wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to receive the request further include        instructions that cause the computer system to receive a cookie        included in the request, where the cookie is associated with a        solution of a particular security check.    -   20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 13-19, wherein the instructions further comprise        instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,        cause the computer system to detect automated agent activity        based at least in part on the cookie included in the request.    -   21. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured withexecutable instructions,

-   -   receiving a request for a webpage;    -   tagging the request based at least in part on a signature of the        request and a collection of signatures, where the collection of        signatures is a set of signatures and associated confidence        levels;    -   determining a security check to include in the webpage based at        least in part on the tagged request, where the security check is        configured such that a client application displaying the webpage        would not cause the security check to be displayed;    -   transmitting the webpage in response to the request;    -   determining whether an interaction with the security check        included in the webpage has occurred; and    -   updating the collection of signature based at least in part on        the determination.    -   22. The computer-implemented method of clause 21, wherein the        interaction with the security check includes a solution to the        security check included in the webpage.    -   23. The computer-implemented method of clauses 21 or 22, wherein        updating the collection of signature includes modifying the        confidence level associated with the signature corresponding to        the request.    -   24. The computer-implemented method of any of clauses 21-23,        wherein determining to include the security check in the webpage        is based at least in part on receiving a certain number of        security check solutions.    -   25. A system, comprising:    -   at least one computing device configured to implement one or        more services, wherein the one or more services are configured        to:    -   receive a network request;    -   render, based at least in part on the network request, a user        interface including a security check, where the user interface        is configured such that a client rendering the user interface        does not display the security check;    -   determine if a solution to the security check is submitted; and    -   perform an action based at least in part on the determination.    -   26. The system of clause 25, wherein preforming the action        includes updating a collection of signatures based at least in        part on the determination.    -   27. The system of clauses 25 or 26, the collection of signatures        includes an order list of network addresses, where the network        addresses higher in the list correspond to a higher score of a        particular network address corresponding to an automated agent.    -   28. The system of any of clauses 25-27, wherein the system        updates the collection of signatures by increasing a confidence        level associated with a particular signature of the collection        of signature, where the system determines that the solution to        the security check was submitted.    -   29. The system of clause 25-28, wherein the system updates the        collection of signatures by decreasing a confidence level        associated with a particular signature of the collection of        signatures, where the system determines that no solution to the        security check was submitted.    -   30. The system of any of clauses 25-29, wherein the system        renders the user interface by obtaining an equivalent version of        the user interface, wherein the equivalent version of the user        interface is configured to display the security check and        modifying the user interface such that the security check is        rendered inactive and not caused to be displayed when the user        interface is rendered.    -   31. The system of any of clauses 25-30, wherein the system        renders the user interface based at least in part on a test        implemented by a policy service, where the test is configured to        determine a false positive rate of an automated agent detection        model.    -   32. The system of any of clauses 25-31, wherein preforming the        action includes updating the automated agent detection model        based at least in part on the determination.    -   33. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having        collectively stored thereon executable instructions that, when        executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause        the computer system to at least:    -   receive a request for a resource;    -   select a user interface type to include in response to the        request, wherein the selected user interface comprises one of:    -   a first type wherein one or more references to information are        unselectable by a user while a security check is displayed and        the one or more references to information are obtainable by an        automated agent; or    -   a second type wherein the user interface includes the security        check and is configured such that a client rendering the user        interface does not display the security check;    -   generate, based at least in part on the selected type, the user        interface; and    -   provide the user interface.    -   34. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of        clause 33, wherein the instructions that cause the computer        system to receive the request for the resource further include        instructions that cause the computer system to generate a        service call to a policy service, the policy service being        responsible for determining the user interface to include in        response to the request.    -   35. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of        clauses 34 or 35, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to receive the request further include        instructions that cause the computer system to provide        information corresponding to the request to an automated agent        detection service.    -   36. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 33-35, wherein the instructions further comprise        instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,        cause the computer system to:    -   receive a response to the user interface; and    -   perform an action based at least in part on the response.    -   37. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 33-36, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to perform the action based at least in part on        the response further include instructions that cause the        computer system to update an automate agent detection model or a        human user detection model based at least in part on the        response.    -   38. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 33-37, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to select a user interface type to include in        response to the request further include instructions that cause        the computer system to select the user interface type to include        in the response based at least in part on a sampling rate of        requests.    -   39. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 33-38, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to select the user interface type to include in        response to the request further include instructions that cause        the computer system to select the user interface type to include        in the response based at least in part on receiving a certain        number of solutions to one or more previous security checks        included in one or more previous user interfaces.    -   40. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 33-39, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to select the user interface type to include in        response to the request further include instructions that cause        the computer system to selecting the user interface type to        include in the response based at least in part on information        associated with a requestor responsible for transmitting the        request.    -   41. A computer-implemented method for detecting automated agent        activity, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured withexecutable instructions,

-   -   receiving a solution to a security check, the security check        configured to distinguish humans from automated agents;    -   determining whether the solution was submitted by an automated        agent, based at least in part on a signature list and a first        signature corresponding to the received solution, and if the        signature list indicates a confidence level above a certain        level transmitting a cookie in response to the solution, the        cookie configured to enable access to one or more resources        without an additional security check;    -   receive a plurality of requests including the cookie, where at        least a subset of the plurality of requests are associated with        one or more other signatures that are different from the first        signature;    -   detecting automated agent activity based at least in part on the        subset the plurality of requests associated with one or more        other signatures; and    -   updating an automated agent detection model based at least in        part on the first signature and the one or more other        signatures.    -   42. The computer-implemented method of clause 41, wherein        transmitting the security cookie in response to the solution        includes transmitting the security cookie in response to the        solution being incorrect.    -   43. The computer-implemented method of clauses 41 or 42, wherein        the received solution is the solution to a security check that        is contained in code of a webpage but configured not to be        displayed in the webpage.    -   44. The computer-implemented method of any of clauses 41-43        wherein the plurality of requests including the cookie includes        one or more HTTP requests in which the cookie is included with        the one or more HTTP requests.    -   45. A system, comprising at least one computing device        configured to implement one or more services, wherein the one or        more services are configured to:    -   transmit a token in response to an interaction with a security        check included in a user interface of a service provider, where        the token is configured to allow access to one or more resources        of the service provider without receiving an additional security        check in response to a request to access the one or more        resources;    -   determine if one or more requests to access the one or more        resources including the token have been received;    -   if at least one request including the token has be received,        obtain a set of signatures associated with the at least one of        requests; and    -   performing one or more actions based at least in part on the        determination.    -   46. The system of clause 45, wherein performing one or more        actions further includes associating the set of signatures with        a confidence level indicating automated agent activity in        response to receiving at least one request including the token.    -   47. The system of clauses 45 or 46, wherein the token further        includes a cookie capable of being associated with the security        check included in the user interface and being tracked across        multiple requests by the service provider.    -   48. The system of any of clauses 45-47, wherein the received at        least one request including the token further includes        determining that the token included in the request was received        from an automated agent responsible for interacting with the        security check included in the user interface.    -   49. The system of any of clauses 45-48, wherein the at least one        computing device configured to implement one or more services,        is further configured to invalidate the token based at least in        part on the received at least one request including the token.    -   50. The system of any of clauses 45-49, wherein transmitting the        token in response to the interaction with the security check        included in the user interface further includes incrementing a        maximum token counter such that a maximum number of tokens        issued does not exceed the maximum token counter.    -   51. The system of any of clauses 45-50, wherein the at least one        computing device configured to implement one or more services,        is further configured to:    -   determine at least a subset of the set of signatures associated        with the at least one request where the service provider has        additional information corresponding to a score indicating a        particular signature of the subset of signatures being        associated with an automated agent; and    -   correlate the additional information with information        corresponding to the at least one request in order to update the        score of the particular signature being associated with an        automated agent.    -   52. The system of any of clauses 45-51, wherein performing the        one or more actions further includes updating a collection of        signatures based at least in part on the updated score of the        particular signature.    -   53. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having        collectively stored thereon executable instructions that, when        executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause        the computer system to at least:    -   receive an indication of a request including a token, where the        token was issued in response to a security check;    -   receive second indication of at least one other request        including the token;    -   detect automated agent activity based at least in part on the        second indication of the at least one other request including        the token; and    -   update a collection of signatures to include a signature of the        automated agent based at least in part on the detected automated        agent activity.    -   54. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of        clause 53, wherein the instructions that cause the computer        system to update the collection of signatures to further include        instructions that cause the computer system to associate the        signature of the automated agent with a confidence level        indicating automated agent activity.    -   55. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of        clauses 53 or 54, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to receive the indication of the request        including the token further include instructions that cause the        computer system to receive a cookie as the token.    -   56. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 53-55, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to receive the second indication of the at least        one other request including the token further include        instructions that cause the computer system to invalidate the        token.    -   57. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 53-56, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to update the collection of signatures to        further include instructions that cause the computer system to        update the collection of signatures to include a second        signature, the second signature corresponding to a second        automated agent responsible for transmitting the solution to the        security check.    -   58. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 53-57, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to receive the second indication of the at least        one other request including the token further include        instructions that cause the computer system to receive the        second indication of the at least one other request including        the token from the same source responsible for transmitting the        request including the token.    -   59. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 53-58, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to update the collection of signatures to        include the signature of the automated agent further include        instructions that cause the computer system to provide the        collection of signatures to a request processing service.    -   60. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of any        of clauses 53-59, wherein the instructions that cause the        computer system to update the collection of signatures to        include the signature of the automated agent further include        instructions that cause the computer system to obtain the        signature of the automated agent from the token.

All references, including publications, patent applications and patents,cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent asif each reference were individually and specifically indicated to beincorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: underthe control of one or more computer systems including one or morehardware processors and configured with executable instructions,receiving a request for a webpage; processing the request at a renderingservice of a service provider remotely located from a requestor by atleast: obtaining a security check to be used to distinguish humans fromautomated agents; and configuring the webpage such that the securitycheck is presented in a modal pop-up box of the webpage, and such that:the webpage includes one or more uniform resource locators, separatefrom the modal pop-up box, that are obfuscated for selection by a humanuser without clearing the modal pop-up box, and the automated agentsfail to detect computer executable instructions that activate the modalpop-up box of the webpage and thereby select the one or more uniformresource locators without interacting with the modal pop-up box toperform the security check; and transmitting the webpage in response tothe request.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein thecomputer-implemented method further includes: receiving an indication ofan interaction with the webpage; and updating a collection of signaturesbased at least in part on the indication.
 3. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein configuring the webpage includes configuringthe webpage such that the webpage lacks uniform resource locatorslinking to information for which successful solution to the securitycheck is required.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the computer-implemented method further includes: receiving anindication of an interaction with the webpage, the indication indicatinginteraction with the webpage during presentation of the modal pop-up boxwithout submission of a solution to the security check; and updating acollection of signatures to increase a confidence level of a particularsignature associated with the indication, based at least in part on theindication.
 5. A system, comprising: at least one computing deviceconfigured to implement one or more services, wherein the one or moreservices are configured to: receive a request to access one or moreresources of a service provider remotely located from a requestor of therequest; determine, in response to the request, a response to therequest that includes a security check, the response including one ormore references to information, wherein selection of the one or morereferences is required for accessing the one or more services, the oneor more references being unselectable by a user during presentation ofthe security check, the one or more references being selectable in thewebpage by an automated agent, and the security check being configuredto cause the automated agent to ignore the security check in response tothe presentation of the security check; transmit the response, asdetermined, to the request; at a time after transmitting the response tothe request, make a determination whether the security check has beeninteracted with; and perform one or more actions based at least in parton the determination.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or moreservices are further configured to: receive a second request including asolution to the security check; and transmit a cookie in response to thesecond request regardless of whether the solution to the security checkindicates automated agent activity, where the cookie is configured toallow access to the one or more resources of the service provider. 7.The system of claim 6, wherein the determination of whether the securitycheck has been interacted with is based at least in part on the secondrequest.
 8. The system of claim 5, wherein the response is furtherconfigured to include one or more references to information that areunselectable by the user during presentation of the security checkincludes configuring the response to include a modal pop-up boxcontaining the security check.
 9. The system of claim 5, wherein makingthe determination is based at least in part on receiving a secondrequest referencing at least one of the references to information of theone or more references to information.
 10. The system of claim 5,wherein the at least one computing device configured to implement one ormore services is further configured to: tag the received request basedat least in part on a collection of signatures; and call a policyservice responsible for determining to include the security check in theresponse to the request.
 11. The system of claim 5, wherein performingthe one or more actions includes updating an automated agent detectionmodel or a human user detection model based at least in part on thedetermination of whether the security check was interacted with duringpresentation of the security check.
 12. The system of claim 5, whereindetermining to include the security check in the response to the requestis based at least in part on a test to determine a false positive rateof one or more automated agent detection models.
 13. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executableinstructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computersystem, cause the computer system to at least: receive a request;transmit a response to a requestor of the request, the response beingconfigured such that when rendered, the response provides a userinterface that includes a security check and one or more references toinformation that are unselectable by a non-automated agent using theprovided user interface as a result of the security check being presentin the provided user interface, and the one or more references toinformation are selectable, via the provided user interface, by anautomated agent without automated agent interaction with the securitycheck whose presentation renders the one or more references unselectableby the non-automated agent; receive data indicating whether aninteraction was performed with the security check; if the received dataindicates that the interaction with the one or more references toinformation was performed with the security check, determine that therequestor is the non-automated agent; if the received data indicatesthat the interaction with the one or more references to information wasperformed without the security check, determine that the requestor isthe automated agent; and update a signature list based at least in parton whether the interaction was performed.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructionsthat cause the computer system to transmit the response to the requestincluding the security check further include instructions that cause thecomputer system to configure the response such that the security checkis displayed in a modal manner.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions that cause thecomputer system to receive data indicating whether the interaction wasperformed with the security check further include instructions thatcause the computer system to receive data indicating the interaction wascausing a modal pop-up box to be closed.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructionsthat cause the computer system to update the signature list furtherinclude instructions that cause the computer system to increase aconfidence level that a particular signature is associated with theautomated agent.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumof claim 13, wherein the instructions that cause the computer system toupdate the signature list further include instructions that cause thecomputer system to increase a confidence level that an IP addressassociated with a particular signature in the signature list isassociated with the automated agent.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructionsthat cause the computer system to update the signature list furtherinclude instructions that cause the computer system to associate acookie with a particular signature in the signature list.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein theinstructions that cause the computer system to receive the requestfurther include instructions that cause the computer system to receive acookie included in the request, where the cookie is associated with asolution of a particular security check.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the instructionsfurther comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the computer system to detect automated agent activitybased at least in part on the cookie included in the request.